TY - JOUR A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Stathonikos, Nikolas A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Ammeling, Jonas A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Wilm, Frauke A1 - Veta, Mitko A1 - Jabari, Samir A1 - Eckstein, Markus A1 - Annuscheit, Jonas A1 - Krumnow, Christian A1 - Bozaba, Engin A1 - Cayir, Sercan A1 - Gu, Hongyan A1 - Chen, Xiang A1 - Jahanifar, Mostafa A1 - Shephard, Adam A1 - Kondo, Satoshi A1 - Kasai, Satoshi A1 - Kotte, Sujatha A1 - Saipradeep, Vangala A1 - Lafarge, Maxime W. A1 - Koelzer, Viktor H. A1 - Wang, Ziyue A1 - Zhang, Yongbing A1 - Yang, Sen A1 - Wang, Xiyue A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Bertram, Christof T1 - Domain generalization across tumor types, laboratories, and species — Insights from the 2022 edition of the Mitosis Domain Generalization Challenge JF - Medical Image Analysis N2 - Recognition of mitotic figures in histologic tumor specimens is highly relevant to patient outcome assessment. This task is challenging for algorithms and human experts alike, with deterioration of algorithmic performance under shifts in image representations. Considerable covariate shifts occur when assessment is performed on different tumor types, images are acquired using different digitization devices, or specimens are produced in different laboratories. This observation motivated the inception of the 2022 challenge on MItosis Domain Generalization (MIDOG 2022). The challenge provided annotated histologic tumor images from six different domains and evaluated the algorithmic approaches for mitotic figure detection provided by nine challenge participants on ten independent domains. Ground truth for mitotic figure detection was established in two ways: a three-expert majority vote and an independent, immunohistochemistry-assisted set of labels. This work represents an overview of the challenge tasks, the algorithmic strategies employed by the participants, and potential factors contributing to their success. With an score of 0.764 for the top-performing team, we summarize that domain generalization across various tumor domains is possible with today’s deep learning-based recognition pipelines. However, we also found that domain characteristics not present in the training set (feline as new species, spindle cell shape as new morphology and a new scanner) led to small but significant decreases in performance. When assessed against the immunohistochemistry-assisted reference standard, all methods resulted in reduced recall scores, with only minor changes in the order of participants in the ranking. UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2024.103155 Y1 - 2024 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2024.103155 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-58479 SN - 1361-8423 VL - 2024 IS - 94 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Marzahl, Christian A1 - Ammeling, Jonas A1 - Rosbach, Emely A1 - Richter, Barbara A1 - Puget, Chloé A1 - Denk, Daniela A1 - Demeter, Elena A. A1 - Tabaran, Flaviu A. A1 - Wasinger, Gabriel A1 - Lipnik, Karoline A1 - Tecilla, Marco A1 - Valentine, Matthew J. A1 - Dark, Michael A1 - Abele, Niklas A1 - Bolfa, Pompei A1 - Erber, Ramona A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Merz, Sophie A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Jabari, Samir A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Aubreville, Marc T1 - Information mismatch in PHH3-assisted mitosis annotation leads to interpretation shifts in H&E slide analysis JF - Scientific Reports N2 - The count of mitotic figures (MFs) observed in hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained slides is an important prognostic marker, as it is a measure for tumor cell proliferation. However, the identification of MFs has a known low inter-rater agreement. In a computer-aided setting, deep learning algorithms can help to mitigate this, but they require large amounts of annotated data for training and validation. Furthermore, label noise introduced during the annotation process may impede the algorithms’ performance. Unlike H&E, where identification of MFs is based mainly on morphological features, the mitosis-specific antibody phospho-histone H3 (PHH3) specifically highlights MFs. Counting MFs on slides stained against PHH3 leads to higher agreement among raters and has therefore recently been used as a ground truth for the annotation of MFs in H&E. However, as PHH3 facilitates the recognition of cells indistinguishable from H&E staining alone, the use of this ground truth could potentially introduce an interpretation shift and even label noise into the H&E-related dataset, impacting model performance. This study analyzes the impact of PHH3-assisted MF annotation on inter-rater reliability and object level agreement through an extensive multi-rater experiment. Subsequently, MF detectors, including a novel dual-stain detector, were evaluated on the resulting datasets to investigate the influence of PHH3-assisted labeling on the models’ performance. We found that the annotators’ object-level agreement significantly increased when using PHH3-assisted labeling (F1: 0.53 to 0.74). However, this enhancement in label consistency did not translate to improved performance for H&E-based detectors, neither during the training phase nor the evaluation phase. Conversely, the dual-stain detector was able to benefit from the higher consistency. This reveals an information mismatch between the H&E and PHH3-stained images as the cause of this effect, which renders PHH3-assisted annotations not well-aligned for use with H&E-based detectors. Based on our findings, we propose an improved PHH3-assisted labeling procedure. UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-77244-6 Y1 - 2024 UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-77244-6 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-53559 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 14 IS - 1 PB - Springer Nature CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Haghofer, Andreas A1 - Parlak, Eda A1 - Bartel, Alexander A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Assenmacher, Charles-Antoine A1 - Bolfa, Pompei A1 - Dark, Michael A1 - Fuchs-Baumgartinger, Andrea A1 - Klang, Andrea A1 - Jäger, Kathrin A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Merz, Sophie A1 - Richter, Barbara A1 - Schulman, F. Yvonne A1 - Janout, Hannah A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Scharinger, Josef A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Winkler, Stephan M. A1 - Kiupel, Matti A1 - Bertram, Christof T1 - Nuclear pleomorphism in canine cutaneous mast cell tumors: Comparison of reproducibility and prognostic relevance between estimates, manual morphometry, and algorithmic morphometry JF - Veterinary Pathology N2 - Variation in nuclear size and shape is an important criterion of malignancy for many tumor types; however, categorical estimates by pathologists have poor reproducibility. Measurements of nuclear characteristics can improve reproducibility, but current manual methods are time-consuming. The aim of this study was to explore the limitations of estimates and develop alternative morphometric solutions for canine cutaneous mast cell tumors (ccMCTs). We assessed the following nuclear evaluation methods for accuracy, reproducibility, and prognostic utility: (1) anisokaryosis estimates by 11 pathologists; (2) gold standard manual morphometry of at least 100 nuclei; (3) practicable manual morphometry with stratified sampling of 12 nuclei by 9 pathologists; and (4) automated morphometry using deep learning–based segmentation. The study included 96 ccMCTs with available outcome information. Inter-rater reproducibility of anisokaryosis estimates was low (k = 0.226), whereas it was good (intraclass correlation = 0.654) for practicable morphometry of the standard deviation (SD) of nuclear size. As compared with gold standard manual morphometry (area under the ROC curve [AUC] = 0.839, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.701–0.977), the prognostic value (tumor-specific survival) of SDs of nuclear area for practicable manual morphometry and automated morphometry were high with an AUC of 0.868 (95% CI = 0.737–0.991) and 0.943 (95% CI = 0.889–0.996), respectively. This study supports the use of manual morphometry with stratified sampling of 12 nuclei and algorithmic morphometry to overcome the poor reproducibility of estimates. Further studies are needed to validate our findings, determine inter-algorithmic reproducibility and algorithmic robustness, and explore tumor heterogeneity of nuclear features in entire tumor sections. UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/03009858241295399 Y1 - 2024 UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/03009858241295399 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-53661 SN - 1544-2217 SN - 0300-9858 VL - 62 IS - 2 SP - 161 EP - 177 PB - Sage CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stathonikos, Nikolas A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - de Vries, Sjoerd A1 - Wilm, Frauke A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Veta, Mitko A1 - van Diest, Paul J T1 - Breast cancer survival prediction using an automated mitosis detection pipeline JF - The Journal of Pathology: Clinical Research N2 - AbstractMitotic count (MC) is the most common measure to assess tumor proliferation in breast cancer patients and is highly predictive of patient outcomes. It is, however, subject to inter‐ and intraobserver variation and reproducibility challenges that may hamper its clinical utility. In past studies, artificial intelligence (AI)‐supported MC has been shown to correlate well with traditional MC on glass slides. Considering the potential of AI to improve reproducibility of MC between pathologists, we undertook the next validation step by evaluating the prognostic value of a fully automatic method to detect and count mitoses on whole slide images using a deep learning model. The model was developed in the context of the Mitosis Domain Generalization Challenge 2021 (MIDOG21) grand challenge and was expanded by a novel automatic area selector method to find the optimal mitotic hotspot and calculate the MC per 2 mm2. We employed this method on a breast cancer cohort with long‐term follow‐up from the University Medical Centre Utrecht (N = 912) and compared predictive values for overall survival of AI‐based MC and light‐microscopic MC, previously assessed during routine diagnostics. The MIDOG21 model was prognostically comparable to the original MC from the pathology report in uni‐ and multivariate survival analysis. In conclusion, a fully automated MC AI algorithm was validated in a large cohort of breast cancer with regard to retained prognostic value compared with traditional light‐microscopic MC. UR - https://doi.org/10.1002/2056-4538.70008 Y1 - 2024 UR - https://doi.org/10.1002/2056-4538.70008 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-53087 SN - 2056-4538 VL - 10 IS - 6 PB - Wiley CY - Chichester ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Glahn, Imaine A1 - Haghofer, Andreas A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Degasperi, Brigitte A1 - Bartel, Alexander A1 - Kreilmeier-Berger, Theresa A1 - Hyndman, Philip S. A1 - Janout, Hannah A1 - Assenmacher, Charles-Antoine A1 - Bartenschlager, Florian A1 - Bolfa, Pompei A1 - Dark, Michael A1 - Klang, Andrea A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Merz, Sophie A1 - Richter, Barbara A1 - Schulman, F. Yvonne A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Scharinger, Josef A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Winkler, Stephan M. A1 - Bertram, Christof T1 - Automated Nuclear Morphometry: A Deep Learning Approach for Prognostication in Canine Pulmonary Carcinoma to Enhance Reproducibility JF - Veterinary Sciences N2 - The integration of deep learning-based tools into diagnostic workflows is increasingly prevalent due to their efficiency and reproducibility in various settings. We investigated the utility of automated nuclear morphometry for assessing nuclear pleomorphism (NP), a criterion of malignancy in the current grading system in canine pulmonary carcinoma (cPC), and its prognostic implications. We developed a deep learning-based algorithm for evaluating NP (variation in size, i.e., anisokaryosis and/or shape) using a segmentation model. Its performance was evaluated on 46 cPC cases with comprehensive follow-up data regarding its accuracy in nuclear segmentation and its prognostic ability. Its assessment of NP was compared to manual morphometry and established prognostic tests (pathologists’ NP estimates (n = 11), mitotic count, histological grading, and TNM-stage). The standard deviation (SD) of the nuclear area, indicative of anisokaryosis, exhibited good discriminatory ability for tumor-specific survival, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.80 and a hazard ratio (HR) of 3.38. The algorithm achieved values comparable to manual morphometry. In contrast, the pathologists’ estimates of anisokaryosis resulted in HR values ranging from 0.86 to 34.8, with slight inter-observer reproducibility (k = 0.204). Other conventional tests had no significant prognostic value in our study cohort. Fully automated morphometry promises a time-efficient and reproducible assessment of NP with a high prognostic value. Further refinement of the algorithm, particularly to address undersegmentation, and application to a larger study population are required. UR - https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci11060278 Y1 - 2024 UR - https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci11060278 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-48612 SN - 2306-7381 VL - 11 IS - 6 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Ammeling, Jonas A1 - Hecker, Moritz A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Aubreville, Marc ED - Maier, Andreas ED - Deserno, Thomas Martin ED - Handels, Heinz ED - Maier-Hein, Klaus H. ED - Palm, Christoph ED - Tolxdorff, Thomas T1 - Automated Mitotic Index Calculation via Deep Learning and Immunohistochemistry T2 - Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2024: Proceedings, German Conference on Medical Image Computing, Erlangen, March 10–12, 2024 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-44037-4_37 Y1 - 2024 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-44037-4_37 SN - 978-3-658-44037-4 SP - 123 EP - 128 PB - Springer Vieweg CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fragoso-Garcia, Marco A1 - Wilm, Frauke A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Merz, Sophie A1 - Schmidt, Anja A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Fuchs-Baumgartinger, Andrea A1 - Bartel, Alexander A1 - Marzahl, Christian A1 - Diehl, Laura A1 - Puget, Chloe A1 - Maier, Andreas A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert T1 - Automated diagnosis of 7 canine skin tumors using machine learning on H&E-stained whole slide images JF - Veterinary Pathology N2 - Microscopic evaluation of hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides is still the diagnostic gold standard for a variety of diseases, including neoplasms. Nevertheless, intra- and interrater variability are well documented among pathologists. So far, computer assistance via automated image analysis has shown potential to support pathologists in improving accuracy and reproducibility of quantitative tasks. In this proof of principle study, we describe a machine-learning-based algorithm for the automated diagnosis of 7 of the most common canine skin tumors: trichoblastoma, squamous cell carcinoma, peripheral nerve sheath tumor, melanoma, histiocytoma, mast cell tumor, and plasmacytoma. We selected, digitized, and annotated 350 hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides (50 per tumor type) to create a database divided into training, n = 245 whole-slide images (WSIs), validation ( n = 35 WSIs), and test sets ( n = 70 WSIs). Full annotations included the 7 tumor classes and 6 normal skin structures. The data set was used to train a convolutional neural network (CNN) for the automatic segmentation of tumor and nontumor classes. Subsequently, the detected tumor regions were classified patch-wise into 1 of the 7 tumor classes. A majority of patches-approach led to a tumor classification accuracy of the network on the slide-level of 95% (133/140 WSIs), with a patch-level precision of 85%. The same 140 WSIs were provided to 6 experienced pathologists for diagnosis, who achieved a similar slide-level accuracy of 98% (137/140 correct majority votes). Our results highlight the feasibility of artificial intelligence-based methods as a support tool in diagnostic oncologic pathology with future applications in other species and tumor types. UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/03009858231189205 KW - computer-aided diagnosis KW - computational pathology KW - digital pathology KW - dog KW - machine learning KW - skin KW - veterinary oncology Y1 - 2023 UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/03009858231189205 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-38321 SN - 0300-9858 VL - 60 IS - 6 SP - 865 EP - 875 PB - Sage CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Ammeling, Jonas A1 - Manger, Carina A1 - Kwaka, Elias A1 - Krügel, Sebastian A1 - Uhl, Matthias A1 - Kießig, Angelika A1 - Fritz, Alexis A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Riener, Andreas A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Aubreville, Marc ED - Stolze, Markus ED - Loch, Frieder ED - Baldauf, Matthias ED - Alt, Florian ED - Schneegass, Christina ED - Kosch, Thomas ED - Hirzle, Teresa ED - Sadeghian, Shadan ED - Draxler, Fiona ED - Bektas, Kenan ED - Lohan, Katrin ED - Knierim, Pascal T1 - Appealing but Potentially Biasing - Investigation of the Visual Representation of Segmentation Predictions by AI Recommender Systems for Medical Decision Making T2 - Mensch und Computer 2023: Building Bridges: Tagungsband (Proceedings) UR - https://doi.org/10.1145/3603555.3608561 Y1 - 2023 UR - https://doi.org/10.1145/3603555.3608561 SN - 979-8-4007-0771-1 SP - 330 EP - 335 PB - ACM CY - New York ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Ammeling, Jonas A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Fick, Rutger H. J. A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Bertram, Christof ED - Deserno, Thomas Martin ED - Handels, Heinz ED - Maier, Andreas ED - Maier-Hein, Klaus H. ED - Palm, Christoph ED - Tolxdorff, Thomas T1 - Deep Learning-based Subtyping of Atypical and Normal Mitoses using a Hierarchical Anchor-free Object Detector T2 - Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2023: Proceedings, German Workshop on Medical Image Computing, Braunschweig, July 2-4, 2023 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-41657-7_40 Y1 - 2023 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-41657-7_40 SN - 978-3-658-41657-7 SN - 978-3-658-41656-0 SP - 189 EP - 195 PB - Springer Vieweg CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Lausser, Ludwig A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Aubreville, Marc ED - Deserno, Thomas Martin ED - Handels, Heinz ED - Maier, Andreas ED - Maier-Hein, Klaus H. ED - Palm, Christoph ED - Tolxdorff, Thomas T1 - Limits of Human Expert Ensembles in Mitosis Multi-expert Ground Truth Generation T2 - Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2023: Proceedings, German Workshop on Medical Image Computing, Braunschweig, July 2-4, 2023 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-41657-7_27 Y1 - 2023 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-41657-7_27 SN - 978-3-658-41657-7 SN - 978-3-658-41656-0 SP - 116 EP - 121 PB - Springer Vieweg CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Stathonikos, Nikolas A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Hoeve, Natalie ter A1 - Ciompi, Francesco A1 - Wilm, Frauke A1 - Marzahl, Christian A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Maier, Andreas A1 - Breen, Jack A1 - Ravikumar, Nishant A1 - Chung, Youjin A1 - Park, Jinah A1 - Nateghi, Ramin A1 - Pourakpour, Fattaneh A1 - Fick, Rutger H. J. A1 - Ben Hadj, Saima A1 - Jahanifar, Mostafa A1 - Shepard, Adam A1 - Dexl, Jakob A1 - Wittenberg, Thomas A1 - Kondo, Satoshi A1 - Lafarge, Maxime W. A1 - Kolezer, Viktor H. A1 - Liang, Jingtang A1 - Wang, Yubo A1 - Long, Xi A1 - Liu, Jingxin A1 - Razavi, Salar A1 - Khademi, April A1 - Yang, Sen A1 - Wang, Xiyue A1 - Erber, Ramona A1 - Klang, Andrea A1 - Lipnik, Karoline A1 - Bolfa, Pompei A1 - Dark, Michael A1 - Wasinger, Gabriel A1 - Veta, Mitko A1 - Breininger, Katharina T1 - Mitosis domain generalization in histopathology images — The MIDOG challenge JF - Medical Image Analysis UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102699 KW - Domain generalization KW - Histopathology KW - Challenge KW - Deep Learning KW - Mitosis Y1 - 2022 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102699 SN - 1361-8423 SN - 1361-8415 VL - 2023 IS - 84 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Theelke, Luisa A1 - Wilm, Frauke A1 - Marzahl, Christian A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Maier, Andreas A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Breininger, Katharina T1 - Iterative Cross-Scanner Registration for Whole Slide Images T2 - 2021 IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision Workshops (ICCVW) UR - https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCVW54120.2021.00071 KW - Pathology KW - Computer vision KW - Image resolution KW - Microscopy KW - Conferences KW - Estimation KW - Registers Y1 - 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCVW54120.2021.00071 SN - 978-1-6654-0191-3 SN - 2473-9944 N1 - Eine frei zugängliche Version ist veröffentlicht unter: https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/ICCV2021W/CDPath/html/Theelke_Iterative_Cross-Scanner_Registration_for_Whole_Slide_Images_ICCVW_2021_paper.html SP - 582 EP - 590 PB - IEEE CY - Piscataway ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Stathonikos, Nikolas A1 - ter Hoeve, Natalie A1 - Ciompi, Francesco A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Veta, Mitko A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Marzahl, Christian A1 - Wilm, Frauke A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Maier, Andreas T1 - Quantifying the Scanner-Induced Domain Gap in Mitosis Detection T2 - MIDL: Medical Imaging with Deep Learning 2021 Y1 - 2021 UR - https://2021.midl.io/papers/i6 PB - MIDL Foundation CY - Nijmegen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Marzahl, Christian A1 - Bartel, Alexander A1 - Stayt, Jason A1 - Bonsembiante, Federico A1 - Beeler-Marfisi, Janet A1 - Barton, Ann K. A1 - Brocca, Ginevra A1 - Gelain, Maria Elena A1 - Gläsel, Agnes C. A1 - du Preez, Kelly A1 - Weiler, Kristina A1 - Weissenbacher-Lang, Christiane A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Maier, Andreas A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Hill, Jenny T1 - Cytologic scoring of equine exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage: Performance of human experts and a deep learning-based algorithm JF - Veterinary Pathology N2 - Exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) is a relevant respiratory disease in sport horses, which can be diagnosed by examination of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cells using the total hemosiderin score (THS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and reproducibility of annotators and to validate a deep learning-based algorithm for the THS. Digitized cytological specimens stained for iron were prepared from 52 equine BALF samples. Ten annotators produced a THS for each slide according to published methods. The reference methods for comparing annotator’s and algorithmic performance included a ground truth dataset, the mean annotators’ THSs, and chemical iron measurements. Results of the study showed that annotators had marked interobserver variability of the THS, which was mostly due to a systematic error between annotators in grading the intracytoplasmatic hemosiderin content of individual macrophages. Regarding overall measurement error between the annotators, 87.7% of the variance could be reduced by using standardized grades based on the ground truth. The algorithm was highly consistent with the ground truth in assigning hemosiderin grades. Compared with the ground truth THS, annotators had an accuracy of diagnosing EIPH (THS of < or ≥ 75) of 75.7%, whereas, the algorithm had an accuracy of 92.3% with no relevant differences in correlation with chemical iron measurements. The results show that deep learning-based algorithms are useful for improving reproducibility and routine applicability of the THS. For THS by experts, a diagnostic uncertainty interval of 40 to 110 is proposed. THSs within this interval have insufficient reproducibility regarding the EIPH diagnosis. UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/03009858221137582 KW - artificial intelligence KW - automated image analysis KW - bronchoalveolar lavage fluid KW - computational pathology KW - digital pathology KW - equine KW - pulmonary hemorrhage KW - respiratory disease KW - total hemosiderin score Y1 - 2022 UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/03009858221137582 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-35196 SN - 1544-2217 VL - 60 IS - 1 SP - 75 EP - 85 PB - Sage CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marzahl, Christian A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Maier, Jennifer A1 - Bergler, Christian A1 - Kröger, Christine A1 - Voigt, Jörn A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Maier, Andreas T1 - EXACT: a collaboration toolset for algorithm-aided annotation of images with annotation version control JF - Scientific Reports N2 - In many research areas, scientific progress is accelerated by multidisciplinary access to image data and their interdisciplinary annotation. However, keeping track of these annotations to ensure a high-quality multi-purpose data set is a challenging and labour intensive task. We developed the open-source online platform EXACT (EXpert Algorithm Collaboration Tool) that enables the collaborative interdisciplinary analysis of images from different domains online and offline. EXACT supports multi-gigapixel medical whole slide images as well as image series with thousands of images. The software utilises a flexible plugin system that can be adapted to diverse applications such as counting mitotic figures with a screening mode, finding false annotations on a novel validation view, or using the latest deep learning image analysis technologies. This is combined with a version control system which makes it possible to keep track of changes in the data sets and, for example, to link the results of deep learning experiments to specific data set versions. EXACT is freely available and has already been successfully applied to a broad range of annotation tasks, including highly diverse applications like deep learning supported cytology scoring, interdisciplinary multi-centre whole slide image tumour annotation, and highly specialised whale sound spectroscopy clustering. UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83827-4 Y1 - 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83827-4 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-10943 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 11 PB - Springer Nature CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Meuten, Donald J. A1 - Moore, Frances M. A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Foster, Robert A. A1 - Smedley, Rebecca C. A1 - Dark, Michael A1 - Milovancev, Milan A1 - Stromberg, Paul A1 - Williams, Bruce H. A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Avallone, Giancarlo A1 - Bolfa, Pompei A1 - Cullen, John A1 - Dennis, Michelle M. A1 - Goldschmidt, Michael A1 - Luong, Richard A1 - Miller, Andrew D. A1 - Miller, Margaret A. A1 - Munday, John S. A1 - Roccabianca, Paola A1 - Salas, Elisa N. A1 - Schulman, F. Yvonne A1 - Laufer-Amorim, Renee A1 - Asakawa, Midori G. A1 - Craig, Linden A1 - Dervisis, Nick A1 - Esplin, D. Glen A1 - George, Jeanne W. A1 - Hauck, Marlene A1 - Kagawa, Yumiko A1 - Kiupel, Matti A1 - Linder, Keith A1 - Meichner, Kristina A1 - Marconato, Laura A1 - Oblak, Michelle L. A1 - Santos, Renato L. A1 - Simpson, R. Mark A1 - Tvedten, Harold A1 - Whitley, Derick T1 - International Guidelines for Veterinary Tumor Pathology: A Call to Action JF - Veterinary Pathology UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/03009858211013712 KW - standardization KW - oncology KW - guidelines KW - protocols KW - validation Y1 - 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/03009858211013712 SN - 1544-2217 VL - 58 IS - 5 SP - 766 EP - 794 PB - Sage CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Wilm, Frauke A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Marzahl, Christian A1 - Bartel, Alexander A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Assenmacher, Charles-Antoine A1 - Becker, Kathrin A1 - Bennett, Mark A1 - Corner, Sarah M. A1 - Cossic, Brieuc A1 - Denk, Daniela A1 - Dettwiler, Martina A1 - Garcia Gonzalez, Beatriz A1 - Gurtner, Corinne A1 - Heier, Annabelle A1 - Lehmbecker, Annika A1 - Merz, Sophie A1 - Plog, Stephanie A1 - Schmidt, Anja A1 - Sebastian, Franziska A1 - Smedley, Rebecca C. A1 - Tecilla, Marco A1 - Thaiwong, Tuddow A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Kiupel, Matti A1 - Maier, Andreas A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Aubreville, Marc T1 - Influence of inter-annotator variability on automatic mitotic figure assessment T2 - Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33198-6_56 Y1 - 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33198-6_56 SN - 978-3-658-33198-6 SP - 241 EP - 246 PB - Springer CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Donovan, Taryn A1 - Tecilla, Marco A1 - Bartenschlager, Florian A1 - Fragoso-Garcia, Marco A1 - Wilm, Frauke A1 - Marzahl, Christian A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Maier, Andreas A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Aubreville, Marc T1 - Dataset on bi- and multi-nucleated tumor cells in canine cutaneous mast cell tumors T2 - Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2021: Proceedings, German Workshop on Medical Image Computing, Regensburg, March 7–9, 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33198-6_33 Y1 - 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33198-6_33 SN - 978-3-658-33197-9 SN - 978-3-658-33198-6 SN - 1431-472X SP - 134 EP - 139 PB - Springer Vieweg CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Marzahl, Christian A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Wilm, Frauke A1 - Voigt, Jörn A1 - Barton, Ann K. A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Maier, Andreas A1 - Aubreville, Marc T1 - Cell detection for asthma on partially annotated whole slide images BT - learning to be EXACT T2 - Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2021: Proceedings, German Workshop on Medical Image Computing, Regensburg, March 7–9, 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33198-6_36 Y1 - 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33198-6_36 SN - 978-3-658-33197-9 SN - 978-3-658-33198-6 SN - 1431-472X SP - 147 EP - 152 PB - Springer Vieweg CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ammeling, Jonas A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Rosbach, Emely A1 - Lausser, Ludwig A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Aubreville, Marc T1 - Benchmarking Foundation Models for Mitotic Figure Classification JF - Machine Learning for Biomedical Imaging N2 - The performance of deep learning models is known to scale with data quantity and diversity. In pathology, as in many other medical imaging domains, the availability of labeled images for a specific task is often limited. Self-supervised learning techniques have enabled the use of vast amounts of unlabeled data to train large-scale neural networks, i.e., foundation models, that can address the limited data problem by providing semantically rich feature vectors that can generalize well to new tasks with minimal training effort increasing model performance and robustness. In this work, we investigate the use of foundation models for mitotic figure classification. The mitotic count, which can be derived from this classification task, is an independent prognostic marker for specific tumors and part of certain tumor grading systems. In particular, we investigate the data scaling laws on multiple current foundation models and evaluate their robustness to unseen tumor domains. Next to the commonly used linear probing paradigm, we also adapt the models using low-rank adaptation (LoRA) of their attention mechanisms. We compare all models against end-to-end-trained baselines, both CNNs and Vision Transformers. Our results demonstrate that LoRA-adapted foundation models provide superior performance to those adapted with standard linear probing, reaching performance levels close to 100 % data availability with only 10 % of training data. Furthermore, LoRA-adaptation of the most recent foundation models almost closes the out-of-domain performance gap when evaluated on unseen tumor domains. However, full fine-tuning of traditional architectures still yields competitive performance. UR - https://doi.org/10.59275/j.melba.2026-a3eb Y1 - 2026 UR - https://doi.org/10.59275/j.melba.2026-a3eb UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-66220 SN - 2766-905X VL - 3 IS - MELBA–BVM 2025 Special Issue SP - 38 EP - 55 PB - Melba editors CY - [s. l.] ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Ammeling, Jonas A1 - Rosbach, Emely A1 - Lausser, Ludwig A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Aubreville, Marc ED - Palm, Christoph ED - Breininger, Katharina ED - Deserno, Thomas Martin ED - Handels, Heinz ED - Maier, Andreas ED - Maier-Hein, Klaus H. ED - Tolxdorff, Thomas T1 - Is Self-supervision Enough? BT - Benchmarking Foundation Models Against End-to-end Training for Mitotic Figure Classification T2 - Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2025: Proceedings, German Conference on Medical Image Computing, Regensburg March 09–11, 2025 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-47422-5_15 Y1 - 2025 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-47422-5_15 SN - 978-3-658-47422-5 SP - 63 EP - 68 PB - Springer Vieweg CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - INPR A1 - Ammeling, Jonas A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Rosbach, Emely A1 - Lausser, Ludwig A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Aubreville, Marc T1 - Benchmarking Foundation Models for Mitotic Figure Classification UR - https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.04441 Y1 - 2025 UR - https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.04441 PB - arXiv CY - Ithaca ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Puget, Chloé A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Conrad, Thomas A1 - Baeblich, Malte A1 - Voss, Anne A1 - Landmann, Katharina A1 - Haake, Alexander F. H. A1 - Spree, Andreas A1 - Hartung, Svenja A1 - Aeschlimann, Leonore A1 - Soto, Sara A1 - de Brot, Simone A1 - Dettwiler, Martina A1 - Aupperle-Lellbach, Heike A1 - Bolfa, Pompei A1 - Bartel, Alexander A1 - Kiupel, Matti A1 - Breininger, Katharina A1 - Aubreville, Marc A1 - Klopfleisch, Robert T1 - Artificial intelligence predicts c-KIT exon 11 genotype by phenotype in canine cutaneous mast cell tumors: Can human observers learn it? JF - Veterinary Pathology N2 - Canine cutaneous mast cell tumors (ccMCTs) are frequent neoplasms with variable biological behaviors. Internal tandem duplication mutations in c-KIT exon 11 (c-KIT-11-ITD) are associated with poor prognosis but predict therapeutic response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors. In a previous work, deep learning algorithms managed to predict the presence of c-KIT-11-ITD on digitalized hematoxylin and eosin-stained histological slides (whole-slide images, WSIs) in up to 87% of cases, suggesting the existence of morphological features characterizing ccMCTs carrying c-KIT-11-ITD. This 3-stage blinded study aimed to identify morphological features indicative of c-KIT-11-ITD and to evaluate the ability of human observers to learn this task. 17 untrained pathologists first classified 8 WSIs and 200 image patches (highly relevant for algorithmic classification) of ccMCTs as either positive or negative for c-KIT-11-ITD. Second, they self-trained to recognize c-KIT-11-ITD by looking at the same WSIs and patches correctly sorted. Third, pathologists classified 15 new WSIs and 200 new patches according to c-KIT-11-ITD status. In addition, participants reported microscopic features they considered relevant for their decision. Without training, participants correctly classified the c-KIT-11-ITD status of 63%–88% of WSIs and 43%–55% of patches. With self-training, 25%–38% of WSIs and 55%–56% of patches were correctly classified. High cellular pleomorphism, anisokaryosis, and sparse cytoplasmic granulation were commonly suggested as features associated with c-KIT-11-ITD-positive ccMCTs, none of which showed reliable predictivity in a follow-up study. The results indicate that transfer of algorithmic skills to the human observer is difficult. A c-KIT-11-ITD-specific morphological feature remains to be extracted from the artificial intelligence model. UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/03009858251380284 Y1 - 2025 UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/03009858251380284 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-63841 SN - 1544-2217 VL - 63 IS - 2 SP - 369 EP - 379 PB - Sage CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rosbach, Emely A1 - Ammeling, Jonas A1 - Ganz, Jonathan A1 - Bertram, Christof A1 - Conrad, Thomas A1 - Riener, Andreas A1 - Aubreville, Marc T1 - Stuck on Suggestions: Automation Bias, the Anchoring Effect, and the Factors That Shape Them in Computational Pathology JF - Machine Learning for Biomedical Imaging N2 - Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven clinical decision support systems (CDSS) hold promise to improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency in computational pathology. However, collaboration between human experts and AI may give rise to cognitive biases, such as automation and anchoring bias, wherein users may be inclined to blindly adopt system recommendations or be disproportionately influenced by the presence of AI predictions, even when they are inaccurate. These biases may be exacerbated under time pressure, pervasive in routine pathology diagnostics, or shaped by individual user characteristics. To investigate these effects, we conducted a web-based experiment in which trained pathology experts (n = 28) estimated tumor cell percentages twice: once independently and once with the aid of an AI. A subset of the estimates in each condition was performed under time constraints. Our findings indicate that AI integration generally enhances diagnostic performance. However, it also introduced a 7% automation bias rate, quantified as the number of accepted negative consultations, where a previously correct independent assessment gets overturned by inaccurate AI guidance. While time pressure did not increase the frequency of automation bias occurrence, it appeared to intensify its severity, as evidenced by a performance decline linked to increased automation reliance under cognitive load. A linear mixed-effects model (LMM) analysis, simulating weighted averaging, revealed a statistically significant positive coefficient for AI advice, indicating a moderate degree of anchoring on system output. This effect was further intensified under time pressure, suggesting that anchoring bias may become more pronounced when cognitive resources are limited. A secondary LMM evaluation assessing automation reliance, used as a proxy for both automation and anchoring bias, demonstrated that professional experience and self-efficacy were associated with reduced dependence on system support, whereas higher confidence during AI-assisted decision-making was linked to increased automation reliance. Together, these findings underscore the dual nature of AI integration in clinical workflows, offering performance benefits while also introducing risks of cognitive bias–driven diagnostic errors. As an initial investigation focused on a single medical specialty and diagnostic task, this study aims to lay the groundwork for future research to explore these phenomena across diverse clinical contexts, ultimately supporting the establishment of appropriate reliance on automated systems and the safe, effective integration of human–AI collaboration in medical decision-making. UR - https://doi.org/10.59275/j.melba.2026-87b1 Y1 - 2026 UR - https://doi.org/10.59275/j.melba.2026-87b1 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-67787 SN - 2766-905X VL - 3 IS - MELBA–BVM 2025 Special Issue SP - 126 EP - 147 PB - Melba editors CY - [s. l.] ER -